Texas & Region

Posted: January 20, 2013 - 12:28am

Texas & Region

ALGIERS, Algeria

In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.

One Texan — Frederick Buttaccio from Katy — was among the dead.

President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday the U.S. stood ready to provide whatever assistance was needed in the wake of the attack.

SAN ANTONIO

Firefighters in San Antonio were able to revive 10 cats and two dogs that had been trapped in a house fire.

The San Antonio Express-News reported firefighters used donated pet oxygen masks to help resuscitate the animals after the Friday fire.

Fire department officials said at least eight other cats died in the blaze.

Fire Chief Charles Hood said the homeowners had been taking in stray cats and feeding them, though some were household pets.

Animal Care Services spokeswoman Lisa Norwood said her agency is caring for the 10 cats but officials don’t think all of the animals will survive as some were critically affected by smoke and others were burned.

HOUSTON

Medical officials and others have criticized a Houston city councilman’s disparaging remarks about flu vaccinations and his comments that people “don’t die from the flu.”

The Houston Chronicle reported that during a City Council vote earlier this week to consider accepting $3.1 million in federal funding for childhood immunizations, Councilman Jack Christie criticized flu vaccines. He later suggested the media is embellishing “the extreme fear of encouraging flu vaccinations.”

Christie backed down somewhat from his comments Friday, indicating that what he meant to say was “people should not die from the flu.”

WEATHERFORD

A North Texas man has been jailed on a murder charge after saying “voices” told him to take a pickax to the head of another man.

Nicholas Camfield of Weatherford remained in the Parker County jail Saturday with bond set at $1 million after telling a Texas Ranger he struck John Daniel Doss with the pickax “because the ‘voices in his head’ were telling him to do it.”